The house appears straightforward at first, but it changes around the player as they explore it in first person. The challenge comes from puzzles which require the player to search the environment for visual clues. His initial goal is to complete his masterpiece, and the player's role is to figure out how this task should be accomplished. The player takes control of an artist who has returned to his studio.

A sequel titled Layers of Fear 2 was announced in October 2018 and was released on May 29, 2019. A limited physical retail release for the Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 4, published by Limited Run Games in North America, would be available starting October 2018.

This time the player controls the painter's daughter with the downloadable content focusing on her apparent relapse into trauma after returning to her old house.ДЄ definitive port for the Nintendo Switch, entitled Layers of Fear: Legacy, was released on 21 February 2018 and it features, in addition to the Inheritance DLC, Joy-Con, touchscreen, and HD Rumble support. Layers of Fear: Inheritance was released on 2 August 2016 as a direct follow up add-on to the first game. The gameplay, presented in first-person perspective, is story-driven and revolves around puzzle-solving and exploration.

In Layers of Fear, the player controls a psychologically disturbed painter who is trying to complete his magnum opus as he navigates a Victorian mansion revealing secrets about his past. It was released on Linux, Microsoft Windows, OS X, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One worldwide in February 2016. Layers of Fear is a psychological horror video game developed by Bloober Team and published by Aspyr.

Linux, Windows, OS X, PlayStation 4, Xbox One.

Levels of fear game